The Personal History of David Copperfield

The Personal History of David Copperfield hits the cinemas on the 24th January 2020. We had an amazing time working in the summer of 2018 with the likes of Armando Iannucci, Hugh Laurie, Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton. It was also great to catch up with Aneurin Barnard who we had previously worked with on the film Dead in a Week. Everyone was in such great spirits throughout the production that I’m sure will translate into the film. Keep an eye out for all of our drone aerial shots – not easy to miss. Drone: DJI Inspire 2 Camera: DJI X7 at 6K CDNG

New Holland 2017

Kit – 2 x Inspire 2 drones

We love working abroad so when New Holland asked us to bring our drones to France for a week in July, we made it happen… just! With rather short notice, we managed to get clearance from the French aviation authorities to film on a remote (but massive) farm near (where the fuck James? Auxerre?). This is the 3rd year in a row that New Holland and their Italian film crew have required our aerial filming services to help promote their new agricultural machinery. It’s always exciting work but can be challenging – they have very specific shotlists and often we are required to track the machines closely for long distances which needs a steady hand and good special awareness. This year we were able to offer them new creative possibilities with the Inspire 2 drone shooting ProRes with various lenses – 24mm, 50mm and 90mm (the longer focal lengths are really amazing for this kind of work). The Inspire 2 really is an impressive little beast and we can’t wait to share the footage when we can. Despite the long dusty days in 39deg C heat, it was an awesome job with a very entertaining crew! Thanks New Holland and co.

ITV – The Cruise

Princess Cruises, Santorini to Kotor, August 2017
Kit – 2 x Inspire 2 drones

Another short notice request came in to challenge our organisational powers (thank you to Jordan and James for being so efficient!). Our good friend and DP, Roger Laxon, from Flying Fern Films recommended for this one based on our experience of flying drones in tricky situations… and that it was!

Wild Pictures are the production company behind ITV’s ‘The Cruise’ and for the upcoming 3rd series, they needed sweeping dynamic aerial shots of the Royal Princess cruise ship out at sea. So the challenge was thus… fly from the bow of the ship (safe distance from the passengers) whilst the ship is cruising at 20 knots into a blustery wind.

Hmm… so there is a relative closing wind speed to contend with, as well as constant forward motion and turbulence on takeoff and landing. Not for the feint hearted! Drawing on our 10 years of commercial drone experience and the robust capabilities of the Inspire 2 drone,

we embraced the adrenalin and went for it. Landing in Santorini was quite spectacular… a stunning Greek island with bars, restaurants and shops perched impossibly on the cliffs overlooking a stunning sea view.

The only issue for us was the amount of luggage we had to drag through the tiny meandering streets to get down to the old port for transfer to the cruiseship.We boarded the mighty vessel with wide eyes (and a degree of trepidation!) The ship is absolutely MASSIVE – after an extensive recce and briefing with the captain on the bridge (a tech nerd’s sweet shop!) we settled for an evening drone session on the bow of the ship. A vibrant pastel sunset presented endless creative opportunities. We managed several flights in different light conditions, including night shots with a chance full moon. The impressive camera specs of the Inspire 2 allowed us to switch easily between Pro Res footage and high resolution aerial photography to give the client a variety of imagery for the series. One of the highlights of the trip was working with such an entertaining crew. Thank you to Rachel, Mark, Howard, Tom, Rhiannon, Selena and Zoe for a memorable few days aboard the Royal Princess cruise ship.

  • Built in 2013
  • Launched by the Dutchess of Cambridge
  • 330metres in length
  • Weighs 141,000 tons
  • 3500 passengers
  • 1500 crew
  • 82,000 horsepower
  • 15 yards to the gallon!

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Emmerdale – Ashley Thomas’ death

We’re set for an emotional evening on the streets of one of the UK’s favourite soap dramas tonight! We had the privilege of flying our Freefly systems Alta 8, coupled with our Alexa Mini camera to help give tonight’s special episode the WOW factor!

 

Join us tonight at 7pm on ITV.

Emmerdale’s Jimmy King (played by Nick Miles) checking out our Alta 8 / Alexa Mini combo whilst the crew review the shot!

 

Miss it? Don’t worry, you can watch Ashley’s final scene below.

Broadchurch – ITV

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We’re so excited to see Broadchurch back on the big screen again – we’re even more excited to see our aerial filming work punctuated throughout the series. We spent a number of days last year filming with our ALTA 8 and Alexa Mini drone on the windy South Coast (near West Bay). Lots of longs days and tricky locations (thanks to Graeme MacKenzie) but we had a blast working on this production… such a lovely team of people – it really felt like we were part of the family by the end. If you missed the first episode on Monday 27th Feb, see it here.

Catch the next episode on Monday 6th March.

Chris captures the sunset before a night shoot.

The under belly of the beast –  Our Alexa Mini drone in action!

Beautiful weather for some tracking shots – Moments before shooting a scene for Ep. 1

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Thats a wrap with David Tenant and Olivia Coleman!

James doing preflight checks on the cliff top.

Night shooting in the early hours.

Take off and landing on the beach – we love a challenge!

CBBC | The Worst Witch

CBBC’s The Worst Witch is now on the big screen and we’re excited to have been part of the production. Using the ALTA 8 drone and Alexa Mini camera, we brought the storyboard to life with a huge variety of aerial shots. Our brief was both extensive and challenging, from simulating Witches weaving through trees on their broomsticks to flying around castle turrets and crashing into walls (no drones were hurt in the making of!). We spent 4 days filming with the main unit at the stunning Hohernzollern Castle, in Germany, which was a real privilege because permission to fly drones at this location is extremely tricky to achieve. The Castle’s turrets look just like Witch’s hats and we were able to get very creative with some intricate manoeuvres – the Alta 8 drone by Freefly Systems performed flawlessly with the heavy Alexa Mini camera and MoVI M15 at an altitude of 3000ft. It’s exciting to see all the hard work come together – watch The Worst Witch on CBBC or on catch up via BBC iPlayer.